Trump's demand for DOJ to prosecute his political enemies is 'a jarring moment without precedent': Washington Post

President Donald Trump's push to have AG Bill Barr prosecute his political opponents is "a jarring moment without precedent in modern American history," according to a new Washington Post report.

"President Trump publicly pressured the Justice Department on Friday to move against his political adversaries and complained that Attorney General William P. Barr is not doing enough to deliver results of a probe into how the Obama administration investigated possible collusion between Russia and the 2016 Trump campaign," correspondents Anne Gearan, Matt Zapotosky, Karoun Demirjian and Josh Dawsey reported Friday evening.

"Three weeks before the election and trailing Biden in polls nationally as well as in key states, Trump is issuing a new torrent of threats and demands for federal action against Democrats, including former president Barack Obama, that go beyond his familiar and often erroneous claims of wrongdoing by his perceived political enemies," the newspaper explained. "The president’s calls for the Justice Department to target his political opposition in the heat of a presidential campaign is a jarring moment without precedent in modern American history. But it is in keeping with Trump’s actions when he has faced adversity, which now includes testing positive for the coronavirus last week after for months minimizing the threat posed by a deadly virus that has killed more than 213,000 Americans."

The newspaper interviewed Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith, who worked at the DOJ during the George W. Bush administration.

“The behavior would be shocking in a normal presidency, but Trump has literally been doing this for years,” Goldsmith noted. “So it is reprehensible, but not shocking.”